Linux: 'So easy even a woman could use it'

A local council in Germany may have found the secret to overcoming user reluctance to Linux handing out stuffed penguins and showing users that even a woman can find her way around open source software.

The small southern Germany city of Schwäbisch Hall ditched Microsoft's software in favour of open source back in late 2002. On Wednesday, Horst Bräuner, the civil servant responsible for implementing the migration, revealed the tactics used to get the council workers of Schwäbisch Hall onside.

Undoubtedly the most controversial move on Bräuner's part was the use of a woman to demo the software.

"We put the chairwoman of our workers' council on stage in front of all the municipal workers, and showed her using the new system. After that, we found that no man would say that he couldn't use his PC now that everyone knew a woman could do it."

Speaking at the Open Source for Local Government conference in London, Bräuner explained that some users were afraid that the deployment of Linux was part of a secret plan to read everyone's email, record all their keystrokes and monitor their surfing habits.

"I became the most hated person in the municipality, but hey, that's usual," said Bräuner. "So, to people who didn't like it I gave away Linux T-shirts and stuffed penguins."

Other users were upset that they could no longer run the front cover CD-ROMs from their favourite computer magazines at work, or keep their old screensavers. These feelings were assuaged, Bräuner says, once it became clear that games did run on Linux and that people could still use their work PC for private use.

Schwäbisch Hall was the first German city to abandon Windows in favour of open source. It was soon followed by Munich, and yesterday the German Federal Finance Office signed up with Linux - a deal thought to be one the largest Linux-based mainframe deployments in Europe.

Bräuner believes Linux's security is a massive benefit to system administrators.

"Private screensavers and computer magazine CDs might not work in Linux, but on the other hand the MyDoom virus doesn't either," Bräuner told the conference.

Graeme Wearden writes for ZDNet UK